Cambodian rice exports fall in Q1
As Thailand sells its rice reserves and reforms in Myanmar are rewarded with more access to markets abroad, Cambodia’s total exports of milled rice are on the decline, falling more than 10 per cent in the first quarter of this year compared with the same ...
May Kunmakara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/cambodian-rice-exports-fall-q1
Migrants in ‘hurry’ to get back to work
A survey of 10 Cambodian provinces is studying the whereabouts and plans of migrant workers who were recently repatriated from Thailand, fearing crackdowns on foreign workers there after the coup. During a workshop hosted by Coordination of Action Research on AIDS and Mobility (CARAM) yesterday, Ministry ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/migrants-%E2%80%98hurry%E2%80%99-get-back-work
Union activist freed, but cops keep fliers
A union activist detained in Svay Rieng province on Sunday for delivering fliers promoting a stay-at-home strike was released after three hours, but police kept the leaflets, he said yesterday. When Kem Chamroeun, 25, of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers (CUMW) brought a stack ...
Mom Kunthear and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/union-activist-freed-cops-keep-fliers
Disability initiatives launched as jobs quota not met
For Cambodians with disabilities, the launch of two major initiatives in the past two days designed to improve their lives has brought some optimism about the future—tempered by a note of caution. At Koh Pich island on Thursday, in front of a crowd of more than ...
Holly Robertson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/disability-initiatives-launched-as-jobs-quota-not-met-63276/
Government approves new traffic law
The Council of Ministers on Friday approved a new draft traffic law aimed at improving the safety of Cambodia’s notoriously dangerous roads, with only legislative approval standing in the way of the bill being passed into law. The draft law, which includes changes to 64 articles, ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-approves-new-traffic-law-66675/
Embassy defends handling of maids
Cambodia’s embassy in Malaysia yesterday denied pressuring domestic workers from the Kingdom into renewing their visas, after rights groups told the Post last week that the embassy exploited a legal loophole to keep maids in the country. The statement came as a Malaysian employers association, which has observed the drafting ...
Sen David and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/embassy-defends-handling-maids
IFC offers Acleda Bank $50M for SME lending
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) will provide a $50 million syndicated loan to Acleda Bank to boost lending to small and medium enterprises, of which at least half will support women-owned enterprises, it said yesterday. ...
Post Staff
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/ifc-offers-acleda-bank-50m-sme-lending
Government Mulls Issuing Sovereign Bonds
Cambodia is considering offering sovereign bonds to raise more revenue for the national budget and move away from its dependence on overseas aid, a senior central bank official said Sunday. National Bank of Cambodia director-general Nguon Sokha said the Ministry of Economy and Finance was currently ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/government-mulls-issuing-sovereign-bonds-21989/
Serbian Foreign Minister strengthen bilateral ties
“Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, H.E. Vuk Jeremic will pay an official visit to Cambodia early next week to strengthen bilateral cooperation between the two countries,” the media release from the foreign ministry said on October 7. “Serbian Foreign Minister H.E. Vuk ...
Cambodia reports 60 pct rise in internet users last year
Cambodia recorded about 2.7 million internet users as of December last year, a 60 percent rise year-on-year, a senior official said Thursday. Meanwhile, he said the country has 6 mobile phone operators. As of last year, those operators had sold out 19.1 million SIM cards, ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/sci/2013-03/14/c_132234173.htm
Export Values Up 21 Per Cent
Cambodian export values increased more than 21 per cent in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period last year, and officials said the rise was a positive sign for the Kingdom’s economic growth. According to the Ministry of Commerce’s export data ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013042465194/Business/export-values-up-21-per-cent.html
Seoul visit as tensions mount
In the light of growing tensions between North and South Korea, officials from the Ministry of Labour will head to Seoul on Thursday for a weeklong visit to inform Cambodian workers on emergency evacuation procedures. An estimated 25,000 Cambodians, a figure that includes roughly 5,000 illegal ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013040964963/National/seoul-visit-as-tensions-mount.html
Special Economic Zone Strike in Svay Rieng Ends—For Now
An estimated 30,000 garment factory workers will resume work this morning after three days of strike action ended Wednesday when Svay Rieng provincial officials promised to help the strikers achieve their demands from factory owners. The mass strike led the owner of the Tai Seng Special ...
Aun Pheap and Phann Ana
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/special-economic-zone-strike-in-svay-rieng-ends-for-now-49469/
New owners, old story
An existing moratorium on economic land concessions should be no impediment to pouring more cash into the Kingdom’s booming, and highly criticised, rubber trade, industry executives in the capital heard yesterday, as many current ELCs can simply be recycled to a new crop of investors. Ly ...
Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-owners-old-story
Strike action still on table, unions say
Leaders of unions that declared a nationwide garment worker strike said the work stoppage and protests, which they temporarily suspended, will resume unless government officials renegotiate the industry’s minimum wage. The announcement was their first since authorities cracked down on strike demonstrations on January 2 and ...
Sean Teehan and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/strike-action-still-table-unions-say
Unions argue over wage committee reforms
Meeting for a minimum wage workshop on Tuesday, the country’s independent and government-aligned unions argued over reforms to the Labor Advisory Committee (LAC), the body in charge of setting the minimum wage in the garment sector, which employs some 600,000 workers. The LAC, which is composed ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/unions-argue-over-wage-committee-reforms-51452/
Union reps must prove clean criminal records
The government now requires union leaders to prove that they have no criminal record before registering new branches of their organization, according to a statement from the Ministry of Labor, a decision that comes less than a week before planned nationwide strikes in the garment ...
Khy Sovuthy and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/union-reps-must-prove-clean-criminal-records-53668/
Four years on, arbitration center a step closer to taking cases
Nearly four years after it was established by the Commerce Ministry and one year on from its official launch, the National Commercial Arbitration Center (NCAC) held its first annual assembly Friday. The NCAC was set up in 2010 to provide businesses with an alternative to the ...
Ang Sothear and Holly Robertson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/four-years-on-arbitration-center-a-step-closer-to-taking-cases-63898/
New twist in Cambodian sugar firm saga
Taiwanese food supplier Ve Wong, one of two sugar company owners locked in a long-running battle with villagers in Koh Kong’s Sre Ambel district, has made an eyebrow-raising offer – to give the disputed land back. The company’s offer, posted to the non-profit Business and Human ...
Wide Gap Hampers Cambodian Wage Talks
A higher minimum salary for Cambodia’s garment and footwear worker is still not within sight after talks broke down Tuesday between unions representing the workers and their employers, officials said. The garment and footwear workers unions proposed to nearly double the current minimum monthly wage of ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/wages-02262013140215.html